Sylvie Guillem's last dance – on Japan's New Year's Eve TV show

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After a year of goodbyes, ballerina Sylvie Guillem is finally bowing out: with a televised performance in Japan.

The 50-year-old dancer will perform to Maurice Ravel's Boléro at the Tokyo Jill Bester Concert to mark the advent. She will be choreographed by Maurice Bejart.

Guillem is in Japan for the end of her global farewell tour, Life in Progress. On Wednesday night she gave her final on-stage bow to an enraptured audience. According to The Guardian, the 2,400-strong crowd at Yokohama’s Kanagawa Kenmin hall "burst into 15 minutes of rapturous applause as she left the stage, which was covered with bouquets of flowers." Upon receiving her Lifetime Achievement Olivier award in May, she thanked her grateful audiences, saying: "It was a pleasure to dance for you, and when I stop at the end of the year I will really miss you".

Guillem announced her retirement in 2014, 30 years after she became the youngest ever étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet aged 19. Since then, she has been widely recognised as the greatest dancer of our time, mastering both the worlds of classical ballet and contemporary dance. In May, she told The Telegraph: "I knew for a long time that I had to stop. Better that it is a clean cut. I don’t know if I will be able to cope with the decision I have made. But still it has to end."